millennial blog project

I caught him listening to a financial podcast. Again. 

He stood at the kitchen island peeling carrots or potatoes or something; I can’t remember what it was for dinner that night. I moaned. I complained, “Not another podcast!” Then I picked up the peeler or the knife and the carrots or whatever it was with whatever tool it was and joined in on the dinner making. 

The podcast was dull, as expected, but not the type of dull I expected. The finance dude was talking about writing. It turns out the host of whatever podcast Nick had on had a guest on the show who’d made his mark as a finance writer. 

You need to know we’ve listened to finance-forward podcasts in the past. And sometimes in the car, which kills me.

Don’t live above your means!

Set a budget and stick to it!

The stock market is cray and inflation is cray –– whether you stockpile your cash or not is your choice!

We are savers. We know the drill. But this guy had me hooked with one (paraphrased) sentence. 

Some people are writing to write. Others are writing to have written. The difference between the two is the first group is enthralled by the journey –– the second group is just trying to reach the destination.

Ain’t that the truth. Since re-launching this blog last year, I’ve spent more time writing to have written instead of writing to write. That’s happening for myriad reasons, but let me point out the top three:

1.) What I write (and often everything I do) has to be PERFECT. No mistakes, no typos, no grammatical errors. This takes disciplined, intelligent effort.

2.) I fear judgment and retribution. I admit it.

3.) Like a lot of writers, I’m in love with my own work, but only because I’ve spent so much time refining the craft. It takes me a long time to do what I do, and then I sit back to reread, relish, and enjoy.

After listening to the podcast episode, Nick and I talked about it. He thinks I write to have written for select things, like this blog, for example, or the many novels I’ve started but just can’t seem to get anywhere with (how very original of me). But where I stand out, he says, is with my poetry. Sometimes it just pours out of me onto the page before I can even pick up a pen. And he pointed out that I spent the majority of last winter organizing my poetry collection––300+ poems strong––and compiling an anthology that I hope to have published one day.

But the publishing of the poetry and having written was never my intent with the poetry in the first place. I wrote to write, and when I write to write, I’m more authentic. I’m more me. That’s what he sees in my poetry.

I’ll keep practicing my prose here and writing to write after receiving writing advice from two unexpected places: a finance podcast and my finance- and engineering-nerd boyfriend. 

Thanks for reading. Now stop judging me.